294 



abandoned, except an occasional iiruning or cutting away of such inferior trees as 

 interfered with the growth of others more valuable. 



The rocky tields and the hill-sidea that did not admit of culture by horse-power were 

 grubbed, spaded, and afterward planted, partly with young trees two years old, and 

 partly Avith nuts and seeds. Most of the nuts either failed to vegetate or were eaten 

 by mice and squirrels, and necessitated replanting with young trees. To these rough 

 plantations we did not give much after-culture, but applied guano and Avood-ashes to 

 the soil, which produced a rapid and healthy growth iu the young trees. Wood-ashes 

 have, Avith us, proved the best fertilizer for young trees. We consider an application 

 of leached wood-ashes almost indispensable for a young j)lantation of forest-trees unlesi* 

 the soil is already well charged with the elements of fertility. 



The white-willow plantation was made on low, moist ground, partly in a swamp. 

 Large slips or stakes about six feet in length are cut from the trees in March and April, 

 sharpened at the large end, and driven a foot or eighteen inches into the yielding soil, 

 or Inserted in holes made with a crowbar. No further care is necessary until after the 

 fifth year, when the branches may all be cut for the powder-mills, leaving a single 

 main-stem about six feet in height. This stumptimmediately throws out a system of 

 branches that may again be cut after a period of five to seven years. Periodical cut- 

 tings may thereafter be made every five years, which seem to invigorate the tree, and 

 tend to form a crown, from which an increased number of branches spring forth. 



The locust requires a deep, rich soil to j^roduce the best results. It will bear culti- 

 vation in close thickets, and may be cut periodically every sixteen years. Our single 

 half acre is a profitable portion of our forest plantation. The trees, two years old, 

 were planted in good soil after a previous crop of corn, seven feet apart each way, 

 with a row of potatoes between. They were cultivated one way for four successive 

 seasons, wheii we ceased to plant the potatoes, and left the trees to take care of them- 

 selves. 



The chestnuts were planted with the locusts, the same distance apart, and in the 

 same manner, except that the nuts were planted instead of young trees. Once started, 

 the after-treatment was the same as the locust plantation. Each are cut at intervals 

 of about sixteen years, and the plantations thicken and increase greatly in value with 

 every periodical cutting. Oui" chestnut and locust plantations have quadrupled iu 

 value aftei*the two cuttings they have received. Three to six sprouts spring from 

 every stump, each making a growth quite as vigorous and as much wood in the same 

 time as did the parent tree. 



The soil in which all our deciduous trees are planted is chiefly clay, or clay with a 

 slight intermixture of loam. A sandy soil is more suitable for the pine, and even the 

 barren sand-hills, occasionally found on the shores of the Delaware and Chesapeake 

 Bays and along the Atlantic, may be utilized by the pine, and made to pay a fair profit 

 on the timber product. 



On a tract of sandy land, almost devoid of vegetable growth, in the county of 

 Somerset, Maryland, is one of tlife most successful experiments in pine planting. The 

 land had previously been in "common," in order to allow it to recuperate its exhausted 

 energies by a period of rest. It was plowed, wood-ashes at the rate of twenty-five 

 bushels to the acre s^iread over it, and the pine-seed was sown broadcast and brushed 

 in. The whole business of planting apd the care of the young trees is now finished, 

 and we patiently wait ten, fourteen, or sixteen years for the crop. A better system of 

 planting, and one that now generally prevails, is to strike out the ground and cross- 

 mark as for corn, four feet apart, drop the seeds in the intersections and cover by hoe or 

 plow. The young trees may thus be regularly cultivated, when they make a straight, 

 rapid growth. It is estimated that a fine grove, carefully cultivated in this manner 

 for a few seasons, will be as valuable iu ten years from planting as that sown broad- 

 cast will be in sixteen years. Instances are not rare of plantations of pine in the bet- 

 ter soils near the headwaters of the tributaries of the Delaware and Chesajieake Bays, 

 after a growth of eighteen or twenty years, making sufficient cord-wood to cover the 

 whole ground on Avhich it grew, to a height of tAvo and a half feet, or, in four feet 

 ranks, leaving passages between the ranks three feet in width. 



A recapitulation, shoAving the costs and profits of our timber-plantation, will, we 

 believe, demonstrate the fact that timber-planting for profit may be successfully prac- 

 ticed in our best land in the Middle States. 



Our first plantation of oaks, poplars, &c., made on our best arable land, is yet stand- 

 ing, and its value can, therefore, only be^ estimated. The corn for the five successive 

 years after planting the trees paid the cost of the young trees, as well as the cultiva- 

 tion during that time. We shall only charge the trees with interest on first cost of 

 the land and the taxes for forty years. 



On a measured acre we have 112 white oaks, worth, standing, $8 each $896 00 



Eighty tulip poplars, $10 each 800 00 



Eighty-two walnuts and other trees, worth $6 each 492 00 



Total value 2,188 00 



